Photograph of the residence of Mar Shimon (Simon) in Qudshanis in the mountainous remote region of Hakkari in S.E. Turkey, taken by British Missionary in 1904. Mar Shimon, the Title of the Patriarch or Catholicus of the ancient Assyrian (Nestorian) Church was hereditary. It passed to the son of the sister of the Patriarch who's title was "Nazer al-Kursy ". The headquarters of the church was moved around to avoid persecution since Timur Lenk's devastating invasion in the 14-15th century. The Patriarch moved to Qudshanis around 1672, to Urmia (Persia) in 1918-20, later to Iraq, and finally to Chicago (Illinois) in the United States. In the Middle ages, the Assyrian church was the dominant Christian faith in the orient. It extended from Iraq to China.